Decisions About Marriage and Family Among Survivors of Childhood Cancer

Abstract

Although the effects of treatment for childhood cancer on subsequent reproductive outcomes are unknown, they are often implicated as contributing to that outcome in a detrimental manner. In this study, 263 adult survivors of childhood cancer were compared with 369 adult sibling controls regarding their decisions to marry and have children. The survivors were more likely to report not marrying for health reasons. Although the long-term surivivors did not have significantly more documented or suspected infertility problems, they were less likely than controls to have been pregnant or involved with a pregnancy and were more likely to have been advised by a physician to avoid a pregnancy. However, when the frequency of birth defects among 253 offspring of the survivors was compared with the frequency of defents among 595 offspring of controls, the outcome of pregnancy among survivors and controls proved to equally favorable.